


Hail to the Queen

by peppermint_tea



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: F/F, Gen, OC villain - Freeform, Trans Girl Marco Diaz, a lot of assorted thoughts about headcanony things I guess, post-series time skip, the janstar is kind of incidental
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-21 05:08:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11936958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppermint_tea/pseuds/peppermint_tea
Summary: Several years have passed since the events of the show, and Star and her friends are a little older and a little wiser (Well... *probably*) Things are going pretty well! ...Even if they didn't turn out quite the way that everyone might have expected.But an old enemy has escaped from his prison, and returns to seek his revenge against Star. Will he succeed in seizing control of Mewni? Or will its ruler and protectors have something to say about all that?





	1. What Happened to Lavattro

**Author's Note:**

> (as noted in the description, this story is set several years after the events of the show, and makes a few vague allusions to events that I'm leaving out because I don't know what they are. Just roll with it, it'll be fine.)

The Dark Prince Lavattro knew the importance of patience. He would get his revenge on Star Butterfly... eventually.

That thought kept him going, kept him staying alive, imprisoned as he was in crystal. That is what he dwelled upon as one year passed, then another.

"I will survive," he whispered, still buried in his translucent prison.

He resigned himself to the likelihood that he would likely remain trapped for a decade, maybe even a century. At times he wondered if Star Butterfly would even still be _alive_ when he finally escaped. 

"If I can't have you," he consoled himself, "I will hunt down your progeny, and wreak my terrible and swift vengeance upon them in your stead."

...Though if it was like a century later it probably wouldn't count as 'swift' any more.

Thankfully Lavattro had plenty of time to think up new and creative adjectives. He grew especially fond of 'horribulous.'

When not preoccupied with crafting a new vocabulary sufficient for describing his wrath, he waited and watched and plotted. He took careful note of every movement that Rhombulus made, analyzing his jailor for potential weakpoints and finding plenty. He even saw Star Butterfly again, a few years after he had originally been captured. He watched, vainly wishing he could hear through crystal, as she and Rhombulus argued and fought and talked and ate donuts.

Then, of course, there was the _incident_. With all the chaos and the monsters and _Eclipsa_ —he hadn't even known that she had also been imprisoned amongst Rhombulus's victims.

He wasn't lucky enough to be one of the ones freed in all the commotion, but then seeing how it all turned out, that was likely for the best. It still gave him the opportunity he had been waiting for.

Because with everything going on, his crystal got cracked—ever-so-slightly, just a hairline fracture, really. But how can you mend a broken shard? In that crack he saw his chance, and he saw his revenge.

He waited a month before even trying to move. It took him at least a year after that to prove he could deepen the crack, the thin line extending a fraction of an inch. But the more he tried, the easier it got. 

"I'm coming out," he would murmur to himself over and over again, while concentrating on widening the cracks. "Armed and extremely dangerous. That's the way I like it. I'm so excited."

While Rhombulus wasn't watching, Lavattro grew closer to his escape.

Until one day, four or maybe five years after the _incident_ —it was hard to keep track of time when frozen solid, of course—Lavattro broke out of his crystal. He had his freedom. He had his plans.

He would have his revenge.


	2. What Happened to Star

It was a perfectly average Threesday afternoon on Mewni, and Star Butterfly was _bored_.

"Boooored," she said, just to make that clear.

She had spent most of the morning playing Marco's old Nintendo thingy, but the jump to the secret area in world 4-4 was unquestionably the _worst_. Plus, she still hadn't figured out what the deal was with everyone leaving their floating coins everywhere. One time after school, she had tried to get Marco help her break a bunch of bricks to see if people were keeping their quarters inside, but Marco said that kind of thing only happened in games, and then Star demanded to know how plumbers got paid for all their monster-stomping duties then, and Marco said this was why Star wasn't allowed to be Mewni's economic advisor, and then Star said she got along with the gnomes very well _thank you very much_ , and then Marco did that loud sigh thing that meant she was being silly. 

Long story long, Earth was weird. 

But Mewni wasn't weird _enough_ sometimes. She wiggled around on the cushy throne in the empty grand hall, until she was sitting upside down, head hanging off the end.

The grand hall used to be so lively and fun, too! Star remembered back when her mother used to hold public audiences once a week. Mewmans from all across the kingdom would come for advice and judgment and tribute and autographs and sometimes just to say hi. It was like a festival every time. A festival with angry farmers arguing over whose cow had snuck into what cornfield, but still. A festival!

Now the hall was deserted, aside from the empty suits of armor standing at attention up and down the long carpet. Once the local villages had elected their own judges and the Queen made time to visit them every month or two, there was less need for audiences, no matter how much the people loved their leader.

Star was only here to watch over things because she had drawn the short straw. Everyone else was taking the day off.

"So booooored," she groaned. Thankfully, it was getting towards the time of day when the sun shone through the big stained-glass window at the end of the hall, making pretty rainbow colors move slowly down the carpet. While upside down, it looked really cool. Particularly since the rest of the room was so dark and—

Why was the rest of the room so dark?

She twisted around, trying to sit upright again. The torches here were magic, and supposed to last at least a few centuries. And it was only early afternoon! There was no reason for the long shadows stretching across the floor, as if they were headed right for her feet…

She pulled her knees up against her chest, keeping both feet off the ground where a pool of shadow glistened and swirled.

"Okay, I don't know what's wrong with you, floor," she said, as she pulled out her wand, "but I hope you're ready to get sparkle blasted. Hyper Rainbow Sugar Sh—"

"I don't think so," a sinister voice breathed into her ear. Tendrils of shadow curled in from behind her to wrap around her arms, and before she could even react, a gloved hand had plucked the wand out of her grasp.

The coils of shadow pulled her upwards, dragging her out of the chair and towards the center of the hall. More shadows slipped into the suits of armor, and dark smoke flowed out of the visors. One by one, each came to life, creaking as it raised its weapons in salute.

Star struggled against the bonds holding her, but the darkness wouldn't give way, and with both hands locked in the grip of shadows, she couldn't dip down to reach her magic. The darkness swirled her around again, and suddenly she was facing the raised dais where the throne sat.

There, a hulking figure stood, wreathed in similar shadows. In one hand he held a staff that emitted a dark _darkness_ —whatever you would call the opposite of a glow, like it was sucking in all the light from the room. The figure raised the staff high, and she saw two points of red light glow in the dark expanse of his face. "Star Butterfly!" he boomed out. "I have returned!"

Star blinked.

"Uh, do I know you?"


	3. What Happened to Tom

"Star Butterfly!" Lavattro said, for the third or fourth time. He looked to be getting pretty frustrated, but then, Star had kept interrupting him by wiggling out of the shadow bindings, until he had gotten one of his shadow armor dudes to chain her to a pillar with actual metal chains.

Lavattro paused, expecting another escape attempt. Star stuck her tongue out.

"Kneel before me, for I am Lavattro the Unconquerable!"

"Uhhh, one, I can't kneel." Star waved her hands, shaking the chains. "Ya got me chained up. And two, didn't we conquer you before?"

"Silence!" Lavattro raised his staff. "I am the Dark Prince Lavattro, and I am invincible, invulnerable, indomitable!"

"Pretty sure we dominoed you too or whatever," Star muttered.

"You took my crown from me, Queen Butterfly. I have waited long for the opportunity to return the favor."

Star stared, her head tilting slightly. "Wait, whaaa?"

Lavattro chuckled with a deep, sinister rumbling. "You heard me. I have seized your throne! Now I have my vengea— Why are you laughing? Stop it!"

Star tried to stifle her snorting and giggling. "It's just, that's not— I'm not Queen. Shouldn't you know that?"

"But you were sitting on the throne."

"Yeah, duh, it's really comfortable. Now that we've cleared that up, mind letting me go?"

"No!" Lavattro ground his shadowy teeth. "I may not have been able to confirm all the details on my extensive plans for revenge, but no matter. When your mother returns, I will crush her as well. I will take everything and everyone you love from you!"

Star's laughter intensified. "Oh my gosh, she's not Queen either, how long were you even frozen?"

"What? If she's not the Queen, and you're not the Queen…"

"I mean, I _was_ the Queen," Star said airily. "Sure. I totally didn't want to for the longest time, but then there was that _thing_ , yaknow, with dire circumstances that forced me to take the throne, and I learned valuable lessons about responsibility and sacrifice and being the leader that my people needed me to be."

Lavattro nodded. "Sure. Normal royal succession."

"Right. But then we solved the crisis and everything went back to usual. And like… I knew then that I could be a Queen if I tried, but it's still not like _I_ wanted that. It was miserable! And a good friend pointed out that maybe saying it's my responsibility to be Queen because of fate or destiny is _dumb_. What about being born in a castle makes me qualified to talk diplomatic priorities or set tax policy?"

Lavattro looked puzzled. He leaned forward from atop the throne, resting his chin in his hand. "But you're the Princess! You've got the magic wand."

"Well, _you've_ got it right now, jerk," Star muttered, staring at the wand slipped into Lavattro's belt.

"…and everyone knows you and sure I mean, a certain number of us know you because we hate you and want to destroy you, but even so it's clear that you're special."

Star rolled her eyes. "You don't have to be a Princess or a Queen to be _special_."

"As the Dark Prince of—"

"Yeah yeah yeah," Star said, making a blah-blah motion with one chained hand. "That's your problem right there. You're stuck of thinking of yourself as the main character, and _trust me_ , that seems like it's important but it's not. It's a recipe for a lonely, unsatisfying life of doing things you hate, just because you feel like you have to."

"So what," Lavattro huffed, "I should not care what other people think and just do whatever I want?"

Star laughed. "Nah! The opposite. You should think about what role you play in everyone else's stories too. They're just as important as you, and you don't have to be the center of attention to be important and loved. That's why I'm happy being Star Butterfly, the cheerful friend who never gives up on helping, who raises kickass Warnicorns, and who has gotten much better at making nachos for Movie Night when Marco's not around. Trust me, I'm way happier than I ever was as Star Butterfly, the famous Princess with responsibilities and destiny and attention."

Lavattro was silent for a long time, apparently deep in thought. Finally, he spoke.

"I still—"

With a loud crash and roar of flame, Tom burst through the stained glass windows and into the throne room. All three of his eyes were pure white and glowing, and jets of flames from his hands and feet propelled him through the air as he rocketed towards the throne.

In an instant, Lavattro had leapt to his feet and held forth his staff, blocking an explosion of fire with a shield of pure shadow. Tom was flung backwards, but didn't hesitate in righting himself and flying back to attack once more. The shadow-ghosts wearing the suits of armor stepped forward, swinging their weapons but he twisted in midair, dodging their blows to slip past and reach Lavattro.

Again and again, flame and shadow met, the fire burning away the darkness bit by bit, until…

"Enough!" Lavattro shouted, his voice shaking the entire hall. Everyone, from the armored shadows to Tom himself paused in surprise.

A red slash of a smile crossed the black shadows covering Lavattro's face, and then he held up one gloved fist, opening it to reveal a blue crystal on a silver chain. 

Tom gasped. Star did too. She wasn't entirely why she needed to, but it seemed like the dramatic thing to do at the moment.

"Did you take that too, when you stole the Staff of Shadows?" Tom demanded. Even as he spoke, the tendrils of darkness throughout the room took on a blueish tinge as the air grew colder. He jumped back, trying to use the fire from his hands to fly upwards and retreat, but only faint puffs of smoke came out, the cold magic already seeping through the room and sealing his powers.

Armored shadows grabbed him by both arms, and he couldn't struggle out of their iron grip.

Lavattro's booming laugh echoed in the throne room. He turned to Star in triumph. "See, Princess Butterfly? I will not be so easily bested. I remembered your lover—"

Star and Tom simultaneously gagged. "Phrasing?!" Star choked out. "And also, no?!?"

Lavattro ignored them. "—and took adequate precautions. I may believe that you have rejected Queendom, but I am equally satisfied with seizing the throne from your King."

Lavattro paused, and then let out a sigh. 

"Okay, _now_ why are you both laughing?"


	4. What Happened to Janna

Half an hour later, Lavattro had gotten tired of Star and Tom bickering and had left to stomp around the castle halls, terrifying the occasional servantfolk he ran into.

Star was still chained to a pillar in the throne room, hanging by her hands a few feet off the ground. Tom was the same, except his chains were a kind of glowing demon-resistant metal that he couldn't melt off, and Lavattro had decided to hang him upside-down.

"This sucks," Tom said, again, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, yeah." Star eyed their shadow guard. The helmet on the suit of armor had slumped to the side and she could hear a faint rasping coming from within. For all intents and purposes it looked like the shadow was… snoring?

Star pulled herself up, flipping around to plant both feet on the pillar. Then she began gnawing on the manacles, at a loss for any better ideas.

"That's not going to work either," Tom said dryly.

"Yeah, well, it's a better plan than 'swoop in and attack all by myself'!"

"You were in danger!"

Star craned her head around to stare at him. "Seriously?"

"Well, you _could_ have been in danger," Tom muttered. "This guy is bad news."

"All the more reason not to rush in on your own. What ever happened to having a plan?"

"That was a plan! Operation: Shock and Awe."

"Operation: Aww crap I just got captured, what a Shock."

Tom just closed his eyes and muttered more to himself, counting backwards down from a hundred.

"What about everyone else?" Star said. She gave up on trying to bite through the steel before she risked cracking a tooth, and flipped down to hang by her hands again.

"Our plan is in progress," a new voice said, and Janna stepped out of the shadows, smirking. "And trust me, it has a way cooler name."

Star's face lit up. "Janna-banana!"

"Sup Star?" Janna tapped Tom on the side of his head, causing him to sway back and forth. He started over at 100, ignoring her. "How's it hangin'?"

"Better now that you're here." Star shook the chains on her wrists. "Help a girl out?"

Janna strolled over after glancing over to make sure the suit of armor was still asleep. She took one look at the lock on the manacles and grinned. "Easy peasy. Oh, but I have to tell you the plan."

"Plaaaan," Star breathed out, wiggling in excitement.

A cheshire smile crossed Janna's face and she leaned over and began whispering in Star's ear. One of Tom's eyes cracked open. 

"I want to hear the plan too," he said crossly.

Star didn't answer. Her eyes were wide and her face was bright pink. 

"C'mon, I know I screwed up by running off on my own, but I can help."

"Um!"

"Staaaar."

"She's not— uh." Star's face had turned from pink to crimson as Janna kept whispering. "This isn't so much a plan as it is, uhm— things that. Oh jeez."

Tom's eyebrows furrowed. "Huh?"

"More of a, uh, _private_ plan from Janna—" Star gulped. "Which sounds really nice, actually, but doesn't seem particularly relevant to— _EEP!_ "

The last squeak came when Janna had nibbled on her earlobe. Unfortunately, it was also loud enough to wake the armored guard, who clonked its pike down onto the ground and looked around wildly. When it saw Janna it boomed out a cry of alarm and more shadowy armors rushed in the entrance at the end of the hall.

"Jannaaaa…" Star whined, sweating profusely. "Was that really necessary?"

"Worth it," she said with satisfaction, and then ran up towards the throne. "Hang tight. I'll just be back in a bit— oof!"

While trying to slip out the side door near the throne dais, she slammed right into an entering Lavattro, who looked just as surprised as she was.

He recovered first, raising his staff so that shadows swirled around Janna, lifting her in the air. "What have we here?" he announced. "A rescuer here to—"

Janna pulled a little pouch out of one pocket and threw a handful of dust right into Lavattro's eyes. He immediately let out a yell and began rubbing at his face, and Janna got free of the shadows, running back towards Tom and Star.

"Nice!" Tom said, as Janna grabbed ahold of him and started using him as a platform to try and climb up to the rafters. "Hit him—ouch—with a handful of Pixie Dust, which will—ow!—put him to sleep so that we can get free."

"Nope," Janna muttered. "That stuff's expensive! I just threw some sand at him."

"Where'd you get sand?" Tom said.

Janna balanced on a beam overhead, running down it towards the hole Tom had made in the stained glass window earlier. "A beach!" she yelled back.

Star nodded. "Makes sense."

"Catch ya later!" Janna said, leaping for the window.

Halfway through the air, shadows caught up with her again, freezing her in place. 

Lavattro stood with staff outstretched, and he looked angry.

"Oooooor not."


	5. What Happened to Jackie

"I don't suppose that _you_ are the Queen," Lavattro grumbled as he chained Janna up next to Star.

"Nope."

"Figures."

He stomped off to sit down on the throne again, heaving a sigh.

Janna tried to grab the one of Star's hands she was next to, but Star wiggled away, kicking her lightly in the ankle. 

"You're in trouble," Star said, turning up her nose. "Some rescue attempt that was. You were worse than Tom!"

"Hey!" Tom chimed in.

"Aw, come on," Janna said. "Are you really in that much danger from some big dork in shadowy bellbottoms?"

"Hey!" Lavattro objected.

"It's the principle of the matter!" Star turned away, frowning sternly.

Janna groaned. "Alright, okay, I messed up."

"I'll say."

"C'mon, Star."

"Noooot good enough."

"Ugh." Janna took a deep breath. "Look. Hey. Um."

Star cautiously took a peek back at Janna again, just in time to see her cross her eyes, stick out her tongue, and wiggle her ears all at once.

"Snrk." Star tried to hold it in but couldn't. She burst out into laughter, and Janna let out a sigh of relief.

Tom smirked, raising one eyebrow. Or lowering it, given that he was still upside-down.

This time it was Janna who blushed, not meeting his eyes. But Star held her hand again.

"Alright," Lavattro interrupted. "Just tell me. How many more teenagers am I going to need to imprison? I'm running out of chains here."

"I think we have some in the dungeon," Janna said.

"Chains or teenagers?" Lavattro asked suspiciously.

"We still have a dungeon?" Star asked.

"Well, no, not really. The dungeon got remodeled into a food court. But that's what I call the old bathroom on the third floor."

Tom tilted his head to the side. "You keep chains in the bathroom?"

"Where else are we gonna put them? The food court?"

Lavattro's face was in both of his hands. "I've made a huge mistake," he said to himself.

"And we're just getting started," Janna said. "I think Jackie's next. Hi Jackie!"

"Hey dudes," Jackie said. She wore a dark cloak and her helmet, and stood on the back of a Dermathian stingray, floating high up in the center of the hall. A suit of armor below her was jumping up and down, trying to reach her and coming up short.

Lavattro let out a growl, jumping to his feet and waving his staff of shadows wildly. Bolts of shadow energy shot out, writhing in the air, but Jackie swooped around them, surfing on the back of the stingray as she slalomed in-between the room's pillars.

"Get her!" Lavattro yelled, and the suits of armor chased after her. 

Janna stuck out her hand to give Jackie a high-five as she flew by. Then she stuck out a leg, tripping the suit of armor who was chasing right behind. The shadow armor was running so fast that it went flying into the stone wall with a crash. Pieces of metal armor flew everywhere.

Jackie reached the end of the room and doubled back. As the stingray flew up and flipped upside down, Jackie grabbed ahold of it with one hand. They swooped back through the room, and when another armor jumped at her, she kicked it right in the helmet, sending that flying too.

"Woo! Go Jackie!" Star called out.

There were only a pair of armored guards left, and Jackie rode the ray down to the center of the room, with one guard on either side of her. For a moment, they froze in a standoff, waiting to see who would make the first move.

Jackie's eyes narrowed. 

The guards looked to one another, and then dived for her at the same time.

Jackie let out a laugh as the stingray shot straight up, and the guards crashed into one another with a clang. 

"That wasn't so bad," she said, floating back down. Armored gloves and shoulderpads and boots were strewn all across the throne room, the shadows inside apparently having slunk out in embarrassment.

"You forgot me," Lavattro said, stepping out of the shadows behind her to lay one massive hand down on her shoulder, pinning her in place.

"Aw, bummer, dude."

"Booooo!" Star shouted out.

"I've had enough of this," Lavattro huffed. "You can keep coming, but it is obvious that I will defeat you all in turn. What even is this kingdom? What kind of Queen lets _children_ do all the fighting? Isn't it enough to see each and every one of your efforts end in failure?"

"Who said that was failure?" a new voice said.

When Lavattro turned towards the throne, Star, Tom, and Janna were no longer chained up. Janna was just slipping the lockpicks back into her beanie. Instead they were standing on the dais, smiling.

And on the throne, a girl in a crimson dress casually sat, one elbow on the armrest and her chin resting in one hand as she calmly sized up Lavattro. A silver tiara rested on the top of her brown hair, all the more remarkable for its lack of ostentation. She was young, no older than Star or the rest.

"Just needed to distract you. And let Jackie get close enough to get back Star's wand and the Glacial Sapphire."

Lavattro realized that he was just holding a cloak in his hand. His other hand flew down to his belt, but the wand and the stone were gone. The girl had slipped away, and was already halfway up the hall on the back of her stingray. He let out a curse, glaring at the new arrival. "Who _are_ you?"

The girl on the throne leaned forward, steepling her fingers.

"I'm the Queen."


	6. What Happened to Marco

_Some time earlier…_

It was a perfectly average Wednesday afternoon on Earth, and Marco Diaz was baking.

She didn't get the chance that often. Usually back on Mewni there were plenty of chefs and bakers eager to cook for every meal. And it's not like Marco minded that either—one of the best things about being Queen was allowing other people to take care of the day-to-day things for you.

But there was something about the process that Marco really enjoyed now and again. Baking was a kind of magic of its own, where you could turn raw ingredients alchemy-like into beautiful, delicious foodstuffs. She sometimes thought it was kinda like karate, weirdly enough; once you learned the basic steps and forms, you could start combining them in new ways, and, well, it all just made sense. Even when something went wrong and you wound up with nothing but charred dough, you could just learn from that mistake and next time set the oven for a shorter time or whatever. Baking was comprehensible and relaxing, and exactly what Marco wanted on a sleepy afternoon of her vacation.

In contrast, being Queen meant dealing with big problems with tricky causes and no clear solutions. Still, she approached them in a similar way, breaking down the problem to understand what was going on and how to take small, concrete steps towards a solution. That was satisfying, too, though a lot scarier when people's lives and livelihoods were on the line.

So Marco relished her vacation time and the opportunity to bake, because even if these experimental Mewnian corn krispie treats were to turn out awful, at least no one would be going to war over it. 

Probably. 

A few crash courses in Mewnian history had taught her that they _had_ in fact had wars over way stupider subjects, but then again the country had been ruled by some very odd Queens over the years. For some reason, Mewni seemed like a magnet for really ridiculous crises, and unstable rulers tended to make things worse rather than better.

Marco was just putting a tray into the oven when news of a Really Ridiculous Crisis arrived.

_"Space unicorn, soaring through the stars~"_

Marco grumbled, grabbing her phone from her apron's pocket. "'Yello?"

All she heard was the crackle of a bad signal.

"Uh, hello?" She was about to hang up when something broke through the static.

" _kshhhh_ —problem. Tom says— _kshhh_ "

Marco frowned. "Hello? Janna, is that you?"

" _kshh_ —need help _now_."

And then the line went dead.

After one last agonized glance at her corn krispies, Marco was up the stairs and heading to Star's old room. 

Star being Star, she had left an incredible amount of junk in it, and Marco's parents knew better than trying to move a bunch of unstable magical artifacts mostly held together with cotton-candy chewing gum. Besides, they liked having the space for when Marco and her friends visited.

But that meant that Star's mirror was still there, and it would have a better connection to Mewni than trying to route the signals through human cell networks. Marco dialed up Janna, and then started going through a pile of enchanted boots to find Star's old handheld.

When Janna came up on the mirror, the image was blurry and the audio distorted, but at least they were able to connect. She looked relieved. But Tom, pacing in the background, looked like he was about to explode.

"Okay, what's going on?" Marco said, cutting to the chase.

Janna was _also_ in serious business mode, which said a lot about the situation. "We've got an intruder," she said. "And he's set up a Tramorfidian Crystal somewhere that's blocking scissors. I was only able to patch us through the jamming 'cause Tom and I worked out some thaumaturgic hack-around, but it's pretty unstable."

Tom stormed up to lean over her shoulder. "We need to attack. He's got Star and there's no telling what he'll do next. With the element of surprise—"

"Whoa, whoa," Marco cut in. "Who's got Star? I need to know what's going on first."

Janna shook her head. "I'm not really sure myself. It's some shadow demon dude—"

" _Not_ a demon," Tom said, returning to his pacing.

"—calls himself Dark Prince Lavattro? He has some kind of history with Star."

"Of course." Marco tapped a finger against her chin, already deep in thought. "Okay. I'm going to make a few calls. I need you to hang tight, and _don't do anything stupid_ , okay? I'll call back within 15 minutes. If for some reason the connection fails, you two need to get to the woods and contact me from there."

"No way! I won't—"

"Got it," Janna said, cutting Tom off. Tom muttered something under his breath behind her, and the mirror winked back to Marco's reflection.

Marco immediately dialed another mirror, just as she finally found Star's handheld clamshell mirror, which was cracked but could probably still extra-dimensionally text.

"Yo earth turd! What up?"

Pony Head was at a salon, floating underneath a whirring blowdryer as she munched on some cucumber slices.

"Hey Pony," Marco said. "Got kind of a situation on Mewni. You ever hear of a guy named Lavattro, might have a grudge against Star?"

Her forehead creased. "Um… no?"

"You sure? Dark Prince Lavattro?"

Her eyes suddenly lit up. "Ha! _That_ Dark Prince Lavattro?"

Marco rolled her eyes. "I have no idea, that's why I'm asking."

"Well yeah, but that's like ancient history, know what I'm saying?"

"What does that even mean? Last week you told me hair scrunchies were ancient history, because they've been a fashion disaster for months."

"Oh, no, girl, they're back in!"

Marco closed her eyes, letting out a long breath. "But to the point at hand…"

"Oh you want the full story? Mkay, so this is like years and years ago, back when Star and me were in junior high. So, me and the girls were at the Bounce Lounge, tearing it up, you know how we do—"

"Pony Head…"

"This is all part of it, just hear me out, kay? So we're at the Bounce Lounge and it turns out it's Throwback Thursday and there's this whole dance contest and everything. And there's this dude who's won it for like the past three thousand years straight or something."

"Lavattro."

"Yeah, yeah, get this, Lavattro, the Dark Prince of Disco. Nerd alert! And so Star decides that she wants in on the contest, and it's like a long story but basically? Dude got _served_."

"Seriously? That's why he's trying to take over my queendom now?"

"Well, it turns out he didn't taking losing very gracefully, and I might have been rubbing it in a li-i-i-ttle bit, and also he had some kind of magic shadow staff that summons darkness, like seriously, how are we supposed to know that? And so after he had chased us through fourteen or fifteen dimensions, the Magic High Council caught up and imprisoned him in crystal or something I dunno."

Marco groaned. "Thanks." 

"No problem! Y'all need any help? I still got a manicure appointment, but if you need me, you know I'm there, girl."

"I think we should be good."

"Kay, byeeeee!"

At least Pony Head could be counted on to be exactly as helpful as she always was. It was kind of reassuring, actually.

Next, Marco dialed Rhombulus, but only got a blank screen. She hit up Hekapoo next, while distractedly texting Kelly.

Hekapoo was at the forge, but she brightened up upon seeing Marco. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be on vacation?" 

"Hey H-poo—"

"Don't call me that," she said reflexively but without venom.

"—you hear anything from Rhombulus lately? Think we might have a containment breach on our hands."

"Uh, how serious?"

"Not sure yet. Only escapee I can confirm is a guy named Lavattro. I need you to check it out and make sure it's not any worse than that. I'm also sending Kelly your way. Can you let her borrow a couple of extra pairs of scissors, so we can triangulate a Tramorfidian?"

"Huh?"

"Just need them to open a bunch of different portals to figure out where the edge of the jamming is, and if we can trace that, we'll know that the crystal's at the center and can send someone in to take it out. She's done it before, shouldn't be a problem."

Hekapoo nodded, frowning. "Alright, you got it. Why's it always gotta be some kinda problem for you to call, anyways?"

"Uh, yeah." Marco looked sheepish. "Sorry about that. I was meaning to stop by at the tail end of my vacation, check on Nachos."

"She'd like that." Hekapoo smiled. "But we'll talk later. Good luck."

As Marco closed the call, she was already dialing Janna back again. When Janna appeared in the mirror, the signal still fuzzy, Tom was nowhere in sight.

Janna looked sheepish. "Tom did something stupid."

"Of course he did," Marco said dryly. "It's alright, we can work with that."

For one long moment, Marco closed her eyes, the final pieces clicking together in her mind.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, everyone thought of Marco as the safe kid. She never appreciated the label. She never felt like that was her. But then, at that point in her life there were a lot of things that people thought about her that weren't right. There were even some things she thought herself that were wrong, that had gotten all twisted up. Those took a long time to get figured out. Thankfully she had her friends to support her throughout it all.

It had been a long journey to get to where she was today. She had learned a lot in her time being Queen, and had a lot further to learn still. But Marco had some of the most powerful beings in the universe on her side. 

Tom was their strength and power, and you did not want to be on the receiving end of his unquenchable anger, particularly now that he had learned to guide and direct it, rather than letting it control him. 

Jackie was their rock, unflinching and uncomplaining no matter the hardship, always the first of them to stand back up once they had gotten knocked down. 

Janna was their wild card, effortlessly unorthodox, a force of pure chaos but harnessed for good. 

And Star, of course, was their heart, keeping them together, lifting their spirits, and helping them all to believe that they could overcome any obstacle.

And Marco?

They trusted her to be their leader. She was Marco Diaz, Queen of Mewni. And she had a plan.

She'd run the preliminary strategy past Janna and let her run operations out of the castle there. Then she'd need to contact Jackie, to handle interference while Kelly went for the crystal. Buff Frog should get a heads up, particularly if Lavattro's plans ran deeper than expected and if he was trying to destabilize Mewni's peace treaty with the monsters. Star's parents would probably call Marco _themselves_ once they got wind of something happening, which they always did, and then she'd need to talk them down and keep them from swooping in to throw wild magic and angry half-crazed eagles everywhere, making everything worse.

And she'd need an actual dress. Appearances were important. Hopefully Star would have something appropriate in her closet.

It was going to be a busy afternoon, after all.


	7. What Happened to Lavattro (II)

"I'm the Queen," Marco said, and then a lot happened very fast.

Lavattro still had his staff, and raised it up high, causing shadows throughout the entire room to writhe and twist, already reaching out towards the teens standing near the throne.

"Tom! Star!" Marco snapped, and the two sprung into action.

"Sparkly Sunshine Simulacrum!" Star yelled, pointing her wand straight up. A small orb blinked into existence, blindingly bright.

Lavattro had to hold one arm in front of his eyes to block the light. When his eyes adjusted, he could see Marco still sitting calmly on the throne, but now wearing a pair of sunglasses. "You fools!" Lavattro growled out, "You may think you've won, but you've only made my shadows more powerful!"

The pitch-black shadows cast by the blinding mini-sun took on jagged edges, stretching forward even faster—

There was a crashing sound from behind, and Lavattro whirled around, only to see Tom breaking the rest of the stained glass window. Now sunlight came through from that direction as well, the brightness coming from both in front and behind him, causing his shadows to wilt away to not much more than pale patches.

Lavattro raised his staff once again, grunting as he tried to focus all of his magic in the harsh light.

"Heads up!" someone yelled in front of him, and he suddenly had a stingray flapping right in his face. Flailing his arms, he stumbled back—

Falling right over Janna, who was on her hands and knees, ready to trip him.

Lavattro landed flat on his back, all of his breath knocked out of his body. He was too shocked to react when Jackie rode her stingray forward to pluck the staff right out of his hands.

The ceiling of the room was spinning, and Lavattro tried to sit up, still gasping for breath and woozy. "Curse you, you— you—"

Marco stood up from the throne. She calmly walked down the length of the hall, her hands clasped behind her back, still wearing the sunglasses as her red dress practically glowed in the radiant sunlight. She drew within a few feet of Lavattro and then her head tilted down ever-so-slightly, expression totally unreadable.

"Mewni is my responsiblity," she said, her voice quiet but backed with steel. "I don't care about your petty grudge. But don't expect to come here and threaten my people, my friends, without having to deal with me."

Lavattro pulled himself up into a kneeling position. He glanced over to Jackie, who held his staff securely as she rode her stingray safely far away. Janna had retreated out of immediately reach, too, and leaned against a pillar as she smirked at him. In front, Star still stood under the miniature sun, powering it with her wand. Behind, Tom sat in the remains of the shattered stained glass window, gazing down with a grin.

The closest one was the girl in the red dress.

Lavattro grinned. "Too easy," he whispered.

"Mm?"

The last shadows that still wrapped around Lavattro snapped to attention, flowing down to his hands and sharpening into claws as he moved forward with blinding speed. He reached forward, grasping—Lavattro knew this could still be resolved in his favor. He just needed leverage. A hostage.

Just as he was inches from clawing at the Queen, she was gone. He felt the lightest of touches on his arm, then a shove _upwards_ right in his stomach, and he was flying through the air, his own momentum redirected. He crashed into one of the pillars, almost destroying it, but then leapt forward again, heedless of the rising dust, desperate to— There! He saw the Queen again, and he lunged.

This time, he saw her move, flowing like water around his attack. He saw, for the briefest moment, a slim foot in a ballet flat. And then, as Marco kicked him in the face, he didn't see anything at all.

* * *

"Soooo…" Star nudged Lavattro's unconscious form with one foot. "What do we do with _this_ now? Send him back to Rhombulus I guess?"

"There are other options," Tom growled.

Marco frowned, tapping one finger to her lips. "Whenever we keep putting people in cages, they just break out and are even angrier and more dangerous than before. That's no way to run a queendom."

"I wasn't suggesting a cage."

"Hush. I think I have a better idea."

Janna rolled her eyes. "You're too much of a softy sometimes, Marco."

"Maybe! Maybe not."

* * *

_Some time later…_

The Dark Prince Lavattro knew the importance of patience. He would get his revenge on Queen Marco Diaz... eventually.

The thought kept him going, imprisoned as he was in the Cloud Kingdom.

Well, it wasn't as if he was really totally imprisoned. But the colorful disembodied equine guards wouldn't let him outside the town without a chaperone. And they had taken away the Staff of Shadows, which, to be fair, he had swiped from some demon lord who had left it in the bathroom in the Bounce Lounge. And something about the fluffy clouds and vibrant rainbows even interfered with his natural shadow magicks.

The point is, it was a terrible fate, and each and every day Lavattro woke up full of new ideas on how to wreak his horribulous vengeance.

But worst of all, perhaps, was that they forced him to _labor_ like a menial _servant_. I mean, sure, the big floating pony head royal had phrased it as a request, after assigning him a cloud-house that didn't even have a good view of the park. But Lavattro knew that he was an exploited prisoner, and that such treatment violated several monster rights conventions.

It's only because they also gave him a three-day weekend that Lavattro even acceded to this ignominy. And that's how he ended up at the Cumulus Acres recreation room, at 9:30 A.M. sharp on a Tuesday morning, just in time to make sure their sound equipment was up to snuff.

It wasn't, of course. He had to rely on the boombox that he had brought, along with his extensive cassette tape collection.

"All right, ladies," Lavattro growled. "I'm Dark Lord Lavattro and I'll be your instructor for today's session. I hope everyone's ready to jazzercise."

The only response was a collection of flirty giggles and dreamy sighs, as a dozen floating equine heads all batted their eyelashes at him.

"Hey, cutie, how old are you?" one perky unicorn head in the front piped up.

"That's not relevant," Lavattro said stiffly. "But I am six thousand, three hundred and forty-seven years old."

"Gosh, I just love an older man," the pony said. Her grey hair meant that she had to be in her silver years as well. She giggled disarmingly, and Lavattro thought for a moment about how, really, she was rather attractive, at least as far as ponies went, with her pale purple coat complementing her mane and… 

Lavattro cleared his throat, suddenly feeling a little awkward with all the attention on him. "Um. Yes. Well, let's get started, shall we?" He pressed play on the boombox, and the music kicked in, earning a whole new set of oohs and aahs.

"I love this song!" the cute pony in the front said, bobbing up and down in the air.

Yes, Lavattro knew the importance of patience. He would have his terrible, terrifying revenge… One day.

Eventually.

When the time was right, of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> This one kind of got away from me a little, and the parts I was excited to write ended up not coming out how I wanted, whereas the stuff that I came up with on the fly wound up working better than expected. That's how it goes sometimes though. I'm just glad to have written a thing, and hope that it was worth your time, even if it's not totally my favorite and I see a lot of places that could have been improved.
> 
> For what it's worth, in this story, Marco kept her name, in part because there's not another name that totally speaks to me for her, and in part because Marco's an amazing girl who can do whatever she wants.


End file.
